Monday, January 30, 2006

A stumbling visitor to a top museum has destroyed a set of priceless vases which stood on a shelf for 40 years. The 300-year-old Qing vases were among the best known artefacts at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

The visitor is said to have slipped on a loose shoelace and fallen down a staircase bringing the vases crashing down as he tried to steady himself.

The vases, donated in 1948, were said to hold a "significant value" and were among the best known pieces on display.

The museum declined to identify the man who had tripped.

The accident happened last Wednesday and the museum said it was a most unfortunate and regrettable accident.

Margaret Greeves, the museum's assistant director, said: "They are in very, very small pieces, but we are determined to put them back together."

I'm sure it was traumatic and embarassing and all that, but I honestly wonder about the visceral thrill one might get smashing two priceless vases and not having to worry about replacing them. Maybe the guy who did it reads this article and cringes, or maybe he nurses a secret pleasure remembering the sound of the porcelain hitting the marble stairs, as he and the vases tumbled down together. Can you imagine the noise?

With no injury and no compensation attached to the experience, I figure the recollection of it must be slightly intoxicating. Fair warning to my friends who own 300-year-old vases.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

I started reading the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde today, which I've never read before. Get a load of this description of Jekyll's good friend and lawyer: "Where Utterson was liked, he was liked well. Hosts loved to detain the dry lawyer, when the light-hearted and loose-tongued had already their foot on the threshold; they liked to sit awhile in his unobtrusive company, practising for solitude, sobering their minds in the man's rich silence after the expense and strain of gaiety."

Jeepers crow, the Victorians were so BORING! Listening to Mr. Stevenson here, they even touted it as a virtue. "Well honey, I invited a bunch of fun, interesting people to the party." "But darling! Surely you invited somebody boring to hang out with us afterward!" Man.

Monday, January 09, 2006

I don't know about you, but I think this is freakin' hilarious. Such a surreal choice.

Family Finds Raw Meat Instead Of iPod Inside Sealed Box

A 14-year-old girl who received a new Apple iPod opened the sealed box and found raw mystery meat inside, according to a Local 6 News report. Rachel Cambra purchased a new high-tech iPod for her daughter as a gift this week.

When she opened the sealed box, the device was missing and in its place was a piece of raw meat, the report said.

Cambra said the box was sealed and that it didn't appear to have been tampered with when she brought it home from the Honolulu Wal-Mart where she works. An investigation found that a former employee apparently tampered with a shipment of iPods and put the meat into several packages.

The former employee now faces tampering charges, Local 6 News reported.

The Wal-Mart where the device was purchased from promised to give the family a new iPod from the next shipment the store receives.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

I'm trying to pay more attention to this blog, so today I'm slapping up one of the many beautiful nature photos I've boosted from the BBC. I don't know the story behind this, but I've been grooving on it for weeks.